News and Notes. 517 



gines for two hours after operation ceases, and all snags over 25 

 feet in height within 50 feet of each donkey engine must be 

 felled. 



At a discussion of spark arresters by members of the Oregon 

 Forest Fire Association and others interested, it was brought 

 out that the railroads are inclined to burn coal rather than oil 

 because they find it cheaper and less damaging to their fire boxes. 

 It was reported that on logging railroads oil was used because it 

 was found to be as cheap as, if not cheaper than, wood. The 

 desire on the part of all railroad operators to maintain efficient 

 spark arresters and to do everything possible to prevent forest 

 fires was evident. 



At the committee hearings on Wisconsin forestry legislation, 

 the lumbermen made it clear that the expense for fire patrol 

 should be met by a direct appropriation from the State Treasury 

 out of the funds raised by the State, since it is so generally con- 

 ceded that the stoppage of forest fires is a matter of public con- 

 cern. The proposal in the bill under discussion was to levy 

 a special tax of 2^ cents an acre upon all wild and unoccupied 

 land in the northern twenty-two counties of the State. 



China's first trained forester, Ngan Han, who spent four years 

 at Cornell and two years at Michigan, is preparing a book on 

 elementary forestry in the Chinese language. In the press in- 

 terviews, Han says : "The forests of my country are badly cut 

 and wasted. We've been as reckless as the Americans in the 

 waste of our trees. Our forests are practically all cut over ex- 

 cepting in the northern part of Manchuria, where there are some 

 left, and in the mountains in the west and north where it is diffi- 

 cult to go. I have studied American forestry, and now I must 

 work on the forestry problem in China. It is an unknown prop- 

 osition. We do not know what trees we have in China. I must 

 first find what does grow, or has grown there. I must experi- 

 ment with foreign trees to find what is best to introduce into the 

 country. It is to be all experimental for the next thirty years. 

 Thirty years is a long time to wait for Americans, but we are a 

 race schooled to wait; we are not impatient for results." 



